Tsunami hits Japan after massive quake

Tsunami hits Japan after massive quake

The most powerful earthquake to hit Japan since records began has hit the country's north-east and triggered a devastating tsunami.

Japanese TV showed cars, ships and buildings swept away by a vast wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude quake.
A state of emergency has been declared at a nuclear power plant but officials said there were no radiation leaks.
At least 60 people have been killed by the quake, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.
The death toll is expected to rise significantly.
Some reports quote Japanese police as saying 200 to 300 bodies have been found in the port city of Sendai

The tremor, measured at 8.9 by the US Geological Survey, hit at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) at a depth of about 24km.

A tsunami warning was extended across the Pacific to North and South America.
The Red Cross in Geneva warned that the tsunami waves could be higher than some Pacific islands, Reuters news agency said.
Coastal areas in the Philippines, and other parts of the Pacific were evacuated ahead of the tsunami's expected arrival.
The first waves, currently under a metre high, have started reaching Hawaii.
New Zealand downgraded its alert to a marine threat, meaning strong and unusual currents were expected
Strong waves hit Japan's Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, officials said, damaging dozens of coastal communities.
Kyodo news agency said a 10-metre wave (33ft) struck Sendai, which is in Miyagi.

Japan's NHK television showed a massive surge of debris-filled water sweeping away buildings, cars and ships and reaching far inland.
Motorists could be seen trying to speed away from the wall of water.
A passenger train with an unknown number of people aboard was missing in one coastal area, police told Kyodo.
And a ship carrying 100 people was swept away, Japanese media reported, quoting police in Miyagi. It is not clear what happened to the vessel.
Farmland around Sendai was submerged and the waves pushed cars across the runway of the city's airport. Fires broke out in the city's centre.
A state of emergency was declared at the Fukushima power plant after the cooling system failed in one of its reactors when it shut down automatically because of the earthquake

The local government urged 2,000 nearby residents to evacuate the area as a precaution. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said no radiation leaks at that power plant or any of the other reactors in the quake-hit zone had been detected.

The UN's nuclear agency said four nuclear power plants had shut down safely.
In Iwate prefecture, also near the epicentre, an official said it was difficult to gauge the extent of the destruction.
"Roads were badly damaged and cut off as the tsunami washed away debris, cars and many other things," said Hiroshi Sato, a disaster management official in Iwate.
The earthquake also triggered a massive blaze at an oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo, engulfing storage tanks.
There were reports of about 20 people injured in Tokyo after the roof of a hall collapsed on to a graduation ceremony.

Residents and workers in Tokyo rushed out of apartment buildings and office blocks and gathered in parks and open spaces as aftershocks continued to hit.
Many people in Tokyo said they had never felt such a powerful earthquake.
In central Tokyo, Jeffrey Balanag said he was stuck in his office in the Shiodome Sumitomo building because the elevators had stopped working.
"We're almost seasick from the constant rolling of the building," he told the BBC.
Bullet train services to northern Japan were halted and rapid transit in Tokyo was suspended, stranding many workers in the city centre.
About four million homes in and around Tokyo suffered power outages.
In a televised address, Mr Kan extended his sympathy to the victims of the disaster and said an emergency response headquarters had been set up.

from -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598

Sony VAIO VGN-T2XP review

Looking at the outside of Sony's new VAIO VGN-T2XP, it's hard to know whether to take it seriously or not - is it a toy or a real computer? It weighs just 1.4kg and, at only 272 x 206 x 39mm, takes up less space than a desktop keyboard. Look at what's inside, however, and you become a believer.

It's impressive enough that a 1.2GHz ULV (Ultra Low VoltagePentium M 753 processor, 512MB of memory and a 60GB hard disk are squeezed into the tiny casing, but how did Sony shoehorn a dual-format DVD burner in there as well? In this respect, it tops Samsung's Q30, since that relies on an external drive. The T2 does have a huge battery sticking out the back, accounting for about 20mm of the depth and one quarter of the 1.4kg total weight, but we aren't complaining because this gives it simply enormous staying power. On a heavy workload at full brightness, the T2 ran for an amazing three hours, 25 minutes, and a simply stunning seven hours, 19 minutes on a light workload.

There are two main compromises for compactness, though: screen and keyboard size. Samsung's Q30 has a keyboard almost 7 per cent bigger horizontally across the main keys and a massive 18 per cent vertically, but Sony has still done an admirable job with the T2. The fuller-fingered among the PC Pro eam found it restrictive, and it isn't one you'd choose to type on at the office every day, but with an intelligent layout and smooth key response, it's manageable on the road. Subtle dishing of the keys keeps your fingers in place, and ancillary keys are in the right locations, such as Ctrl bottom-left and Delete top-right. The touchpad and mouse buttons are pleasant to use, and a nice inclusion on a chassis of this size.

More of a surprise is the inclusion of Sony's glossy X-black screen. The theory is that by not scattering light as standard screens do, more of the backlight's output reaches your eyes. The result is brighter images and richer colours, but it also means more reflections - potentially a problem when working for long periods. The T2's 10.6in 1,280 x 768 screen isn't actually that bright, but it's certainly crisp, and reflections aren't troublesome except in movies with dark scenes. The only real disappointment was some shadowing created by uneven backlighting.

In such a portable device, it's nice to see great protection behind the display. Build quality elsewhere is less convincing, with a degree of flexing and creaking from the casing in various places, but the underlying structure is solid enough.

In such a tiny frame, port selection can often be limited, but all the essentials are here. A 56K modem and 10/100 Ethernet connectors sit behind the DVD drive on the right, while the left is blessed with two USB 2 ports, one mini-FireWire, D-SUB, a Type I/II PC Card slot and a Memory Stick PRO reader (which also supports the Duo format). Round the front, you'll find a reassuring on/off switch for the 802.11b/g wireless LAN, volume controls for the surprisingly loud speakers and a button to launch a graphic equaliser. There's also a Bluetooth wireless adaptor inside.

Above the keyboard are some media-control buttons, although there's no instant-on function. They work well with the supplied WinDVD software, and when that's not running they launch Sony's VAIO Zone interface. This is similar to Microsoft's Windows Media Center, but it's far from impressive: VAIO Zone didn't play MP3s from a CD and was fussy about which DVDs it accepted; and content played from your hard disk must be stored in D:Contents; plus, there's no remote control.

because the 1.2GHz ULV Pentium M 753 had little bother turning our benchmarks around with an overall score of 1.22. It's one of the new CPUs released with Intel's Sonoma, although it's paired with an 855GME chipset and runs with a 400MHz front side bus. The T2 uses Intel's integrated Extreme Graphics 2 video chipset, which dynamically shares up to 64MB of system RAM, so any serious 3D gaming is off the agenda.

The memory used, 512MB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM, is fixed to the motherboard, but there's an empty slot beneath the keyboard in which you can install up to 512MB. It's not difficult getting the keyboard off (another sign of the good design) and Sony has a tutorial on its www.vaio-link.com site.

There's no denying this is a fantastic piece of hardware, but it's more specialised than Samsung's Q30. The latter could be used as your only PC at a pinch, whereas the T2 needs a bigger screen and keyboard in the office, driving up the cost. Thankfully, Sony has a docking station that will make connecting and disconnecting easier. For the habitual airport traveller, though, it's a godsend - if you're after the ultimate in portability, the T2 is the most practical option we've seen.